Slackery News Tidbits, November 4
By Jordan Gass-Poore' on November 4, 2011 - 9:30am
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Here's the latest Austin and Central Texas movie news.
- Former Austinite and Fantastic Fest Programmer Coordinator Blake Ethridge will consult on programming and acquisition efforts for the inaugural Oak Cliff Film Festival, which will take place June 14-17 in the Dallas neighborhood. (Ethridge co-hosted Slackerwood's Alamo Downtown Blog-a-Thon in 2007.) OCFF will focus on screening movies previously shown at prestigious film festivals, from Sundance to SXSW to Cannes. Movies will play at the Texas Theatre -- whose owners are also the fest coordinators -- as well as the Kessler Theater, the Bishop Arts "TeCo" Theater (formerly the Bluebird Theater) and the Belmont Hotel in Dallas. Festival submissions open November 7.
- The Austin Polish Film Festival starts today. Anne Lewis at the Austin Chronicle has written an excellent preview.
- Actor Johnny Depp and director Bruce Robinson didn't just visit Austin Film Festival last month, but also spoke with and answered questions from UT RTF and journalism students about their movie The Rum Diary, currently in theaters. RTF instructor John Pierson moderated the panel event. Austinite Amber Heard stars alongside Depp in this action/comedy about an American journalist's exploits in Puerto Rico, based on the book by Hunter S. Thompson.
- Another AFF 2011 selection opens in theaters today: winner of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award for Best Drama, Martha Marcy May Marlene (Elizabeth's review). Former Austinite John Hawkes stars alongside Elizabeth Olsen in this drama about a woman trying to re-connect with her family after fleeing an abusive cult. Hawkes spoke with Austin360 last week about his time in Austin and his acting experiences.
- This weekend, Drafthouse Films' latest release, FP, will screen at the Starz Denver Film Festival this weekend. The movie is a 1980s throwback about a competitive dance-fight video game competition, and might have caught Drafthouse Films' attention when it screened at SXSW earlier this year. Drafthouse Films is the Alamo Drafthouse film distribution arm, which previously released the comedy Four Lions.
- Cinekink, touted as "the kinky film festival," rolls down its stockings in Austin at 8 pm on Thursday, Nov. 17 at Spider House Ballroom. The NYC-based festival will screen six award-winning short films for the 18-and-up crowd. Cinekink celebrates and explores diverse sexuality in film. The Austin event is sponsored by local film series Smut City.
- Austin audio and video post-production company Stuck On On is getting a lot of media attention this month. Read CultureMap Austin's profile of the company, then check out Josh Rosenblatt's profile at the Austin Chronicle. The company's worked on AFF 2011 selection Restive, SXSW 2011 documentary Where Soldiers Come From and recent release Take Shelter, among other films. Jette interviewed them this summer about their work on Slacker 2011.